Entertainment

Smartphone Users Prefer Mobile for Breaking News [STATS]

U.S. smartphone owners are increasingly turning to mobile to access breaking news over other media, including newspapers, TV and desktop web browsers, according to a recent study from mobile app developer Handmark.

In a survey of 300,000 mobile consumers, 88% of whom owned a device running one the five most popular smartphone operating systems, more than 30% said that mobile is the "most important medium" to access breaking news, narrowly followed by desktop web browsers (29%), television (21%) and newspapers (3%).

Just over half (56%) of respondents said they expect to use their mobile device to access news and information more frequently in the next year, while 42% said they plan to use it roughly the same amount.

"Breaking news happens all throughout the day, and what you have throughout the day is your mobile device," he explains. "Once you get into the habit of using your mobile … you [can] be in a room with a TV and not turn it on, because you're reading your news on your mobile device instead," he says.

"The other element is, of course, that you don't have to get off the couch. It's convenient," he adds.

Forty percent of those surveyed said that news and current events were the most important kinds of information they used their mobile devices to access, followed by weather (27%), sports (9%), business/finance (6%), entertainment (5%) and politics (3%). E-mail and information about their friends on social networks were not included as categories in the survey, although given the relative popularity of e-mail, Facebook and Twitter clients, we expect they would have been significant ones.

The survey also examined mobile purchasing trends, noting that 69% of respondents said they had used their mobile device to make a purchase at least once in the past year, and most expect to increase the amount they spend on mobile purchases in 2011.

Notably, 14% claim they already own a tablet, while 52% said they plan to purchase one in the next 12 months. For the sake of tablet manufacturers, let's hope that's not just wishful thinking.

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